Opportunity’s Odyssey

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached its highest point on the surface of Mars, after almost 11 years and 25.8 mi. of solar-powered roving. This map traces its path, and the mosaic images that follow offer colorized panoramic views from the plucky rover’s cameras. They were prepared by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer, a photographer and public lecturer on the exploration of space (kenkremer.com).

Opportunity approaches Endeavour Crater, with some of the features along the way labeled. Cape Tribulation, the rover’s objective, rises 440 ft. (130 meters) above the surrounding plain.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

Another view of Cape Tribulation, taken 10 “sols,” or Martian days, after the previous image.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

This wider panorama gives a better view of the terrain the rover followed over the past three years. One of Opportunity’s solar arrays is visible at left, with the low-gain and dish-shaped high-gain antennas at center.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

Opportunity rolls across the plain toward the Cape Tribulation summit. Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory named the feature, and others around the target crater, after locations British explorer James Cook visited in the Pacific in 1769-71. Endeavour Crater was given the name of his vessel, the HMS Endeavour.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

The view from Solander Point.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

By September 2014, the rover had reached the small crater dubbed Ulysses and was studying its ejecta field. It also took time out from its surface investigations there to prepare for the arrival of the Comet Siding Spring. On Oct. 19, 2014, Opportunity collected the first-ever image of a comet from the surface of another celestial body.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

Another shot of Ulysses, illustrating the treacherous terrain Opportunity traversed on its way to the top of the Endeavour Crater wall.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

By December, the rover was approaching the summit. To conserve energy, Opportunity powers down during the Martian night, but a problem with its flash memory has forced controllers at JPL to collect images and download them to Earth on the same sol, before the nighttime power-down.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer

Opportunity reached the summit of Cape Tribulation on Jan. 6, 2015, and collected this view across Endeavour Crater. The rover’s next objective is “Marathon Valley,” so named because it will mark a marathon’s distance—26.2 mi.—of travel since Opportunity landed on Jan. 25, 2004.
Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer